| -ites | Adjectival suffix to nouns, corresponding to L. -alis, -ale, or -inus, -inum, or Eng. -y, -like, or the hyphenated nouns; the adjective so formed is used without the qualified noun. The feminine form, -itis (agreeing with nosos, disease), is so often associated with inflammatory disease that it has acquired in most cases the significance of inflammation. Thus, tympanites is ho tympanites hydrops, the drumlike swelling of the abdomen, but tympanitis is he tympanitis nosos, the inflammation of the tympanum. See: -ite. Origin: G. Ites, m., or -ites, n. (05 Mar 2000) |
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